This coursework will be based on analyses and evaluation the different approaches to social realism in British cinema since 1960. Particularly, we will look at how different directors managed to reflect life of British people in his films, how social life and reality had been presented in other films.
Exposed in 1954 expressive picture of British artist John Bratby, with the image of the dirty untidy kitchen has allowed an occasion criticism John Silvestre to christen Brotby’s style as “kitchen sink realism" - realism of a kitchen bowl. The term has got accustomed, and not only in paintings - the British art of 50s just as the Italian neo-realism, experienced explosion of interest to a life of simple people, people of working class. The cinema did not lag behind as well: in 1960s Karel Reisz has shot a film “Saturday night, Sunday morning", one more novel of A. Sillitoe " Loneliness of the long-distance runner " has been transformed into a film in 1962 by Toni Richardson. In 1963 young Lindsay Anderson has made sensational film “This Sporting Life “and has proclaimed creation so-called “Movement of free cinema ".
The new generation of British cinematographers has received the united name "the angry young men", their direction also refers to social realism and - at an early stage - free cinema. . In their films, often featuring in the depressive atmosphere of the visual life of the lower classes, are characterized by harsh criticism of all social structures of modern society as those filed in several detached, ironic, and the general vector of the flow can be described as being directed from the harsh criticism to ever more total ironic nihilism.
Samantha Lay (2002) have proposed that the angry young man have not been “poli...
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...utely unlike the mass cinema production of that time presented by easy comedies and a traditional drama.
Conclusion
British social realism, of course, has not disappeared, but migrated to television screens: in particular, already in 1960s, came running up to now TV series “Coronation Street”, which tells about the life of Manchester workers. On television began and directors who, with the greatest success, though, of course, not always consistently lead the line in the British film so far: Stephen Frears, Ken Loach, and Mike Leigh. A subject of social film has expanded from merely the class of problems to gender and race; tone is different - from time to time social a picture is picturesque backdrop for a comedy or extremely topical stories. By the British social realism is seen as the most British genre. In the end, you can always find a reason to be angry.
Braudy, Leo and Marshall Cohen, eds. Film Theory and Criticism: Introductory Readings, Fifth Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, was an exemplary and ground-breaking work. In narrative structure and film style, Welles challenged classical Hollywood conventions and opened a path for experimentation in the later 1940s. Gregg Toland’s deep-focus cinematography and Welles’ use of low-key lighting are often discussed aspects of the movie. True, these were areas of innovation, but when watching the movie in class I was particularly struck by the use of camera movement, or “mobile framing” as described in Film Art. In this historical analysis, I will take a detailed look at how Welles and Toland use camera movement to develop and challenge the Hollywood style. By referring to other movies viewed in Professor Keating’s class, including The Cheat, Wings, Applause, Double Indemnity, The Last Laugh and Bicycle Thief, this paper traces one aspect of innovation and diffusion in the movie many call the greatest film ever, Citizen Kane.
Film Noir, as Paul Schrader integrates in his essay ‘Notes on Film Noir,’ reflects a marked phase in the history of films denoting a peculiar style observed during that period. More specifically, Film Noir is defined by intricate qualities like tone and mood, rather than generic compositions, settings and presentation. Just as ‘genre’ categorizes films on the basis of common occurrences of iconographic elements in a certain way, ‘style’ acts as the paradox that exemplifies the generality and singularity at the same time, in Film Noir, through the notion of morality. In other words, Film Noir is a genre that exquisitely entwines theme and style, and henceforth sheds light on individual difference in perception of a common phenomenon. Pertaining
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Mathijs, Ernest, and Jamie Sexton. Cult Cinema: An Introduction. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Print.
...use of documentary style lighting and discontinuous editing that diverges from the Hollywood “invisible” editing. Through understanding the historical climates these two seemingly similar French cinematic movements were in, the psychology of a generation can be visualized in a way truly unique to the indexicality of the cinematic medium.
In conclusion, the techniques used to contribute to sense of realism in the British soap opera include the three characteristics that Williams outlines. These are the use of a contemporary setting, the soap must concern itself with secular action and the soap should be socially extended.
Wollen, Peter. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. London: Secker and Warburg in association with the British Film Institute, 1972.
Phillips, W. (2002). Thinking about film . In Film an introduction (pp. 403-438). Boston : Bedford/St.Martin's .
Phillips, Gene D. Conrad and Cinema: The Art of Adaptation. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1995.
According to historians like Neil Burch, the primitive period of the film industry, at the turn of the 20th century was making films that appealed to their audiences due to the simple story. A non-fiction narrative, single shots a burgeoning sense
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
‘Then came the films’; writes the German cultural theorist Walter Benjamin, evoking the arrival of a powerful new art form at the end of 19th century. By this statement, he tried to explain that films were not just another visual medium, but it has a clear differentiation from all previous mediums of visual culture.